I invested in Bioware this month. To be clear, by that I mean that I invested quite a bit of time on Bioware's two epic RPG's - Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, completing both games over the course of the month. Let me tell you, that is quite an exercise in time management given the length of these games and the level of detail that was put into them.

Mass Effect 2 is a work of genius pure and simple. Bioware's team has accomplished the unthinkable by marrying the strategy, RPG and shooter genres in a real time world that brings us one step closer to Star Trek TNG's Holodeck. Never have I felt as invested in a game and in the characters as I did in this game. The characters are so well developed and their back stories so compelling I that pretty well finished every side mission and explored almost every nook and cranny of the galaxy. The story is built around a mixture of action and drama with both soft moments and tight action. I carried over my main character from the original Mass Effect with the sequel incorporating my decisions from the first game (who liked me, who did I rescue, who died, who did I have an intimate relationship with) and brought them into the second game. As a result the game was both familiar and new at the same time. I don't think that it's an exaggeration when I say that Mass Effect 2 has revolutionized RPG's, and perhaps even gaming in the same way that Avatar did for movies. Once you've experienced it, the status quo is no longer adequate.

My fondness for Mass Effect 2 convinced me to give DA:O another shot. As I've mentioned in a prior post, I've played through every game that Bioware has published since it moved into console development in 2003 with KOTOR and I needed to go back to give this game another try. I'm glad that I did. While the battle and inventory systems still needlessly get in the way of one's enjoyment of the game, it comes across now that I've played both as a move to address different markets with different games. DA:O is a dark fantasy epic in the Lord of the Rings vein, with dwarves and dragons and magic that is geared toward a somewhat hardcore level of player - one who wants to obsess over every movement, develop potions and add runes to power up the armour. I can appreciate this for what it is, but for me managing things at that level is just not for me and for the most part I just ignored it. The game is huge, I clocked it at nearly 70 hours over four months - too much frankly for a working father of three. THe story is interesting but overdone - too many side quests, fetch quests andmissions that just don't mean anything appear to have been added to play the game length. It's certainly a game for those with a lot of time on their hands, but I've pretty well had enough of it and don't expect to revisit it again.

Having cleared the deck of these RPGs - next on deck is something completely different: Heavy Rain for the PS3. This is more of an interactive story rather than a game, in which you control a character looking for the Origami Killer in a story that is apparently more of a psychological thriller that deals with issues like depression. The reviews for it have been great, I'm looking forward to something different, and with an estimated play through time of about 10 hours, this sounds perfect.